"I-I'm not getting undressed!" Lisanna burst out, casting a glance at the brazen - or, more accurately, rather exhausted - Wendi who she covered with a blanket.

"...?"

He never asked her to. He could still roughly recall her form from the treatments he did on her the night prior, plus it was obvious to any trained eye.

He wrote a note.

'Decide on your direction first. Standing, sitting, fighting, sleeping, whatever. Then ask the other person to mimic it. After that, do the details, refer back to the person, and then repeat until its good, right?'

"O-okay, but... how should I do it...?"

'You decide.'

"But how?"

'Creatively?'

"But how, in what way?"

'... That's on you.'

Mathias sighed and pushed his stasis stone to the middle of the room. "... O-Open... Expand..."

His voice was getting better, but he confirmed at Wendi was still sleeping peacefully.

A figurine floated in the corner and Mathias opted to open the patio door as he formed basic ice to give an example.

Lisanna appeared as if she was just standing.

Roughly, of course, but with the figure and the braid, it was recognizable to those who knew her.

"... Is that it?"

'No, you probably need to do more. I don't know how detailed, but I'm guessing it has to be basically perfect or else Wendi will get mad.'

She spaced hers out a bit of a ways away and formed his appearance in flames. Since it was just the normal flames, it lacked clear lines like the ice, but it had a different feel entirely.

He moved his own version to Lisanna twirling around as if to cut down an enemy. Since it lacked the sword, it seemed more like a dancer.

She seemed to think she had to copy it. So she did.

And moreover, the figure of Mathias in a demanded an implicit action in a similar manner. He begrudgingly did.

He shifted his to reinforced ice and frosted over the exterior so it was more easily seen. Then moved a little bit upwards, the wrist seemed to become more natural, and he kept going until Lisanna told him to pick up her sword.

The moment he did he cried out and dropped it. It was scalding.

He glared at her accusing and held his own half staff and felt the ice cool his palms.

"Make it a sword then!"

"..."

He sighed and did so.

"Don't move. Hold it for a bit longer."

When she finally stopped after ten minutes, they traded off again.

And they kept going for quite some time until Wendi blurrily rubbed her eyes with both hands, suppressed a yawn, and looked at the display. Since there was something soft on her palms, she kicked her feet in the air in half-asleep interest as saw the statues were coming to life.

At some point, Lisanna starting adding azure flames, to which Mathias copied with his azure ice. As the temperature was contained in the statues, it only was an issue if it was formed outside and brought in.

They could easily manage forming the solid flames or reinforced ice inside the stasis field now.

"... Huh...?"

Wendi finally realized her appearance and stammered, "L-Li-Lisanna?! W-where are my clothes?!"

"... You came with us directly and y-you d-decided to u-undress..."

"I-is that s-so...!?" Wendi's eyes spun around, looking around in shock, and she smacked her head as if to coax a memory - any memory - to come back.

"Y-yeah... you said it's fine - hey! Stop moving! I told you to swing it! I want to see how the muscles work since mine looks weird."

"..." He lifted a note in response.

"Wha-?! I have to do that?! What are you making me out to be anyways? I thought I would be fighting!"

Wendi couldn't see the contents of her note, but she did see her borrowed clothes beside her.

She quickly put on another layer.

Only then did she feel comfortable. And then she looked at the darkening sky. "No! Ali! I missed my chance!"

Wendi lamented for a long while before she asked, "h-hey, do you mind if I come here to work on mine tonight? I know if I stay in my room, my brother'll come and I won't be able to concentrate!"

"...?!"

Mathias retreated to protectively sat on his fur.

"No, I wouldn't! Lisanna's maybe, but I haven't even touched yours!"

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Mathias made sure his blanket covered every inch of the fur to ensure there would be no excuse for 'mistakes'.

Even so, Lisanna said, "yeah, that's fine. I want to know how to do his hands - they're really hard to get right!"

The contrast between the valiant warrior wielding a sword and the one sitting and growling from his bed over a fur was stark. Of course, Lisanna's less than graceful staged movements were also a cause for concern with Mathias.

"Okay, I'll do my best! Hey, I'm going to get my clothes fixed on the way, did you want me to take yours as well?"

"I-I can't believe I almost forgot! Thank you, Wendi! I appreciate it!"

Mathias made sure she left the room, even abandoning his training uniform to her care, as she left. It would cost him another gold, but he won some today for some reason he did not contest.

Even so, even he noticed that Wendi's smile was more bright than usual.

-----

"No, no! You're supposed to do a face like this!"

Since Wendi's magic was not liable to ruin anything important, she was using the space between the two beds. The room was quite large, but for three people trying to mimic three life-sized statues? It was a little tight.

Naturally, the fur was safely shielded behind the divider to prevent any stray hands or crystals from potentially damaging it, but otherwise they able to at least see the parts the others were working on.

"The eyes have to be expressive. Mathias, there is a difference in colour tone between your manifested ice and the stage just previous, right? Try to make use of that! And you'll also want to add depth by varying the amount of transparent ice on the inside. You can also try to do partial shifts.

"Lisanna, filter out hues of the flames inside the stasis stone like before. Since it casts light, you'll also want to try to add to the effect by using darker sections of the flames as shadows."

Wendi was teaching them a lot - even if she was inexperienced with the actual practise itself, she was well-read in it.

She even brought a few books for them to read. By a few, it was six. And it would take an entire day to read just one of them. And the competition was on Sunday.

So she just jotted down the main points, gave reference sections, and used her own statue as an example.

And like that, it was twelve o'clock.

And Lisanna's stomach rumbled, followed by Mathias', before ending with Wendi's.

"S-sorry... I haven't eaten anything after breakfast."

"...?"

"Oh, sorry. He did give me some of those cookies-"

"Wha-?! Did you go see Ali without me?!"

"No, no! Uhm, Alexi gave them to him, but he couldn't refuse since he couldn't speak... so he gave them to me."

"Wah! Mathias! Next time share with me too!"

Wendi threw a small tantrum but righted herself quickly. "Either way, I'm hungry! We've made enough progress for the time being, but Lisanna? Err, Mathias, too, I guess?"

"What is it?"

"...?"

"Can I sleepover? I told my roommate that I might, but if you're not okay with it...?"

"I-it's okay, i-isn't it?"

Lisanna was simultaneously nervous and excited. Excluding having a roommate previously in her old boarding school, she never had a sleep-over. Mathias was something of a complication to the typical dream of a girl who wanted a firm social circle, but Wendi seemed fine with him being in the room.

Mathias shrugged.

He pointed to the note on Lisanna's desk pertaining to the rules concerning fur usage.

"I know! I have my own now so it's fine!"

"Okay, if that's it, then it's fine. Did you want to borrow some of my clothes?"

"No, if you don't mind, I can pick up some on the way. There are no rules against it so it should be fine."

As it was midnight, Lisanna's eyes were faltering, but she stayed up at the beckoning of her stomach.

"Okay, let's go. Contract. Close."

They set off, each with their stasis stone in their hands.

Wendi seemed eager to introduce Lisanna to her room.

"See? This is my desk!" Dozens of papers were scattered across its surface, with each line being segmented and ordered in verse; Lisanna glanced at it momentarily, but Wendi was forth-coming with it. "They're the poems I'm working on right now, that's the book I borrowed for the crystal magic a year ago. Since my brother was really popular then, he managed to pull a few strings after I begged for it. I was studying it really, really hard. Oh, right! Let's just hurry to have something to eat!"

Dozens of booklets of poetry, collections of verse, novels, and other such books lined her portion of the bookshelf, with the bottom half completely barren.

While Wendi grabbed and stuffed an overnight bag, Mathias was leaning against the wall. He did not feel the need to enter. Lisanna, however, was confused at the sight of her simultaneously wanting him to see as well as to leave.

"... Uh, isn't a lot of this...-"

She stopped herself from saying useless.

'No, no. I can be a little more selfish here so why can't others?' She thought, glancing towards the two on either side of her. 'At least a little.'

Her father's words were still quite pronounced in her mind.

Even so, she managed to talk amicably, suppressing each yawn as it threatened to be loosed to the world, and the three left the room.

Just as a dishevelled-looking girl with black-hair and dull veridian eyes came in.

"Hi!"

She did not register Wendi's greeting and just wore a blank expression as she fell into her bed and curled up. Flowers in potted vases littered the other side of the room, much different than the poetry and literature on the other, seemingly moving slightly at the arrival.

"...?"

Wendi waved it off. "I-it's fine. She, u-uhm, 'said'... said she was going through a lot, so it'll just take time. Anyways! Let's go!"

"... Okay, but... what is it that people do at sleep-overs?" Lisanna ventured the question.

Wendi gasped. "What?! You don't know? We talk! A lot! And we get to know each other more!"

"... O-okay, but... it is already pretty late...-"

"That's okay! Tomorrow's Saturday so it'll be fine! We made good headway, so it'll be fine! Ah, right! Lisanna, come with me tomorrow to Ali's place!"

"But... but the statue?"

"Mathias'll come too! I'll invite those who are getting the treatments."

Mathias looked back at the two curiously. He did not agree to it, but Lisanna did for him. "If so, I guess that's okay..."

She finally yawned.

Mathias was quite alright, sleep-wise, and even if his schedule shifted back a little, it was no problem to stay up a few more hours. He could still work on the sculpture a little.

'Then... I guess since it's been sent out already, I have to invite Mom and them myself...' He sighed. 'It's going to be a pain to describe it to Erik.'

Irina, his mother, was fine; however, Claude, his father was a different story. Usually, it took a day or two before his passing fascination wore off, he mastered a new level with the weapon-of-the-month and sought to test it. First on a willing Erin, then on an unwilling Mathias. And his mother was usually asleep during those moments - in large part because even if he had the same sleep schedule as her, he was awoken by those two on some other pretense.

Such was his life before.

"Hmm? What are you thinking of?"

Mathias composed a note. At least he could stay on top of it this way.

'If I have to go, then invite Erik. I'm pretty sure my parents will force themselves into the matter when I invite them.'

"Your... parents... is it?" Wendi said with a creased smile. "So be it. It'll be fine. I don't think it's too much of an issue."

"They'd show up just for that?" Lisanna asked, genuinely confused.

While somewhat tiresome to deal with, he loved them both. Even if their methods bordered on abuse at times, it was done with his best interest at heart. Even his mother forcing the troublesome work on Mathias at the parlour had generated moments of fascination and discovery.

He could not fault them for that.

Nor his father since he always held back in training. Erin was a different story, but he did not interact with her much consistently over the past few years.

Lisanna quirked her head to the side and lowered it. "I-I see. Well, she was nice, if a little... much."

'Only if she's interested.'

"Is that so? Then it's... a good thing, I guess?"

He shrugged. It was a catch-22.

"Okay! So first stop after breakfast will be his place, then the cafe, and then we'll work on the projects there until the rest show up! Ah, Ali! I'm so, so close to immortalizing your cuteness!"

"...?"

Mathias' worries were swept away at her strange rambling. Lisanna, too, was a little more energized, if fading, so they quickly went to the dining hall, saw Wendi field questions from the none-too-few students that finally got around to eating, and soon departed.

Mathias started back his project as the two lay on Lisanna's bed.